Divine Intervention

As a business owner, Rosa Mata is constantly working to make sure that her business runs smoothly. Within her long list of responsibilities, finding new clients is a low priority, because she knows that her clients will always find her first. 

For more than 18 years, Rosa has owned and operated “Botánica Ochosi” on Fletcher Drive. The botánica offers a wide variety of religious goods, herbs, folk medicine, and other items. Here, she specializes in the spiritual and psychological needs of her clients. She does not spend money on advertisements because her best advertisers are the spirits that send her new clients from all over. 

“The spirits, if they did not want someone to enter here, they would have not sent them. It is them that want me to help these individuals with their ills.” 

At times, botánicas can be shrouded in mystery, falsely considered to be places where the occult and black magic reign free. For Rosa, her botánica is far from that; it is where those who are suffering can find hope and relief through the help of God and the spirits. 

“I help those who need spiritual and psychological guidance so that they can find some relief and continue pushing ahead. I do cleanses, limpias, if a person has a sad or depressed aura and has no energy. I help those who believe in God so that they continue to believe in him, so that they don’t fall into dark paths like alcohol or drugs, because only he can help us.” 

Over the years, she has helped many with their problems and has borne witness to many strange situations; nothing surprises her anymore. For instance, when she received a call from an unknown international number and the voice on the other end spoke to her in French, she worried more about how she would communicate with her client than how the client found her number in the first place. With the help of a translator app, they exchanged messages back and forth, and Rosa was able to help her. So great was her help that the client flew in from France to her store on Fletcher Drive to thank her personally. 

Similarly, when three men walked in asking for a cleanse, but instead, when they were about to pay, pulled out a gun, Rosa remained calm. With a gun pointed to her head, and while the men stole candles, money, and other religious items, all Rosa could do was pray to her protector spirits and to God.  

“I went silent, but thanks be to God that they did not shoot the gun. They can take whatever material goods they want, but life is precious. I feel safe because the spirits protect me. They protect me 100%.” 

Every day, she finds those who are seeking relief from their problems, seeking to escape from a society that judges them and places the blame on them. Rosa is different, she doesn’t blame them for their woes but rather the situations in which they have found themselves that had led them down these paths. With compassion and some divine intervention, Rosa uses her gifts to bring consolation to her clients. 

Perhaps you will be the next person who finds themselves entering the doors of Botánica Ochosi. 

“I always pray to Jesus Christ, to God, to the spirits, and to the angels. I simply follow what they decide, for they have never forsaken me.”

Rosa Melida Mata is the owner of Botánica Ochosi in Atwater Village. You can stop by her shop and visit her at 2806 Fletcher Dr. Los Angeles, CA 90039